BobAnderson.co.uk is my Family History website, detailing genealogical research into my ancestors, with a particular emphasis on the Anderson, McCauley and Britton parts of my family. The site includes family trees of my genealogy, many photos, and video materials, including footage of the 1911 Eltham Axemen's Carnival in New Zealand, at which my grandfather George McCauley competed successfully.

The Anderson Family: Introduction

The section gives details of my father's ancestors, including the Anderson, Veitch, Williams and Tricker families. The Andersons originated in the Blackford area of Perthshire from where Peter Anderson, my great great grandfather, moved to Edinburgh where he married Jane Veitch. Robert Jnr. Anderson, my great grandfather, went to London where he married my great grandmother, Martha Williams, from Stowmarket in Suffolk. Her parents were James and Eliza Williams (nee Tricker). Alfred Anderson, my grandfather, emigrated to New Zealand in 1908.

Single clicking onto an image in the "full research" section will open it up at its full-size; hover your pointer over the image once it has opened up to see the caption.

The Anderson Family

My great-great-great grandfather, Robert Snr. Anderson, was a sheep farmer in the Blackford area of Perthshire, Scotland; his date of birth and parentage are uncertain but his parents may have been John (christened 18 November 1759) and Jane Anderson (formerly Aitkin), married on 17 July 1781, who had a son named Robert born at Biggs and christened on 11 August 1782. Wester Biggs farm is sited close to Cockpl(e)ay farm where Robert Snr. subsequently lived. The Andersons have been traced two further generations back to John's father, Robert (born 1739), and Robert's father, William. They all lived in the Blackford area. Robert Snr. married Helen Gray in Blackford on 4 November 1805, the month after the battle of Trafalgar. She may have been the Helen born to John Gray and his wife Louisa (formerly Eadie) and baptised in Blackford on 1 October 1783 but this is unproven. A member of the Eadie family, William Eadie, set up a small brewery in Blackford in the early 1800s and one of his fourteen children, James Eadie, subsequently founded a brewery in Cross St., Burton-on-Trent, in 1854. This is interesting because I worked in the brewing industry in Burton-on-Trent and still live in the town.

Blackford, Perthshire, Scotland

Robert Snr. and Helen lived at Cockplay farm, south-west of Blackford, and had seven children, the youngest of whom was my great-great grandfather, Peter Anderson, born at Cockplay, Blackford, and baptised on 13 August, 1820. Helen, the fifth child of Robert Snr. and Helen, married Charles Warburton, a dyer from Edinburgh; she died of dementia in Edinburgh, just after the census in 1881. William Warburton, a son of Helen and Charles, moved to Norfolk in England and then, with a number of other Warburton family members, on to Woolwich where many of them worked in the arsenal. Caroline Bagshaw, a great-great granddaughter of Helen and Charles Warburton, provided this information.

No records have been found of the deaths of Robert Snr. and Helen but they were not living in the Blackford area at the time of the 1841 census, suggesting they were either dead by then or had perhaps moved elsewhere.

Photographs

Here is a selection of images connected to this part of my family. Single clicking onto a photo will open it up at its full-size; hover your pointer over the image once it has opened up to see the caption. Alternatively, visit the Anderson Gallery page to see all of the photos with captions: